Risotto Takes On a Different Shade – NYTimes.com

AS more varieties and better qualities of brown rice become increasingly common, it’s growing clear that you can do pretty much anything you want with this less processed version of the world’s second-most-popular grain. (You guessed it: corn is numero uno.)

This includes making risotto. Real, creamy, tender risotto. There is really only one adjustment to make, and that is to parboil the rice so that the risotto-making process takes about the same amount of time — 20 minutes or so — that it does with white rice.

As you normally would, choose short- or medium-grainbrown rice, which is crucially important because these are the varieties that emit enough starch to make the final product creamy. One could argue, and some will, that you should begin with Italian varieties like Arborio. But good Spanish, Japanese and, yes, American short- and medium-grain rices give equally good results.

All I can tell you is that this risotto seemed like the perfect confluence of ingredients when I made it last week. I had Koda Farms brown rice, a medium-grain variety that is probably the best produced in the United States. I had a few leftover shrimp and stock I’d made from their shells.